Gov’t unveils P629-B domestic borrowing plan for Q1 2025

The Marcos administration plans to borrow P629 billion from local creditors in the first quarter of 2025 to bridge its budget deficit, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said.

Figures showed the amount was more than double the P310-billion domestic financing plan set by the government in the final quarter of 2024.

Dissecting the latest onshore borrowing program, P264 billion will be raised via short-dated Treasury bills (T-bills) in the first three months of 2025, while P365 billion will come from the offerings of longer-term Treasury bonds (T-bonds).

READ: New high: Gov’t debt stock hits P16-trillion mark 

The BTr is looking to sell T-bills worth P88 billion each in January, February and March. The Treasury lined up four T-bill auctions per month.

Meanwhile, the government wants to borrow a total of P125 billion via T-bonds in January and a smaller P115 billion in February. The BTr will close the first quarter with another P125 billion in T-bond offerings in March.

For next year, the Marcos administration is targeting to borrow P2.55 trillion from creditors at home and abroad to plug a projected budget hole amounting to P1.54 trillion, or equivalent to 5.3 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

Foreign investors

By sources of financing, the government will borrow P507.41 billion from foreign investors in 2025.

The remaining P2.04 trillion is targeted to be raised domestically, of which P60 billion will be via T-bills and P1.98 trillion via T-bonds.

All of this, in turn, is expected to push the government’s outstanding debt to P17.35 trillion by the end of 2025.

According to Finance Secretary Ralph Recto, the government wants to eventually lessen the share of foreign borrowings to 10 percent—from the current level of around 25 percent—to minimize foreign exchange risks that can bloat the peso-value of external debts.

But the finance chief said this fiscal goal would not be achieved within the term of President Marcos, adding that the government will be diversifying its sources of external financing to lock-in cheaper rates as much as possible. —Ian Nicolas P. Cigaral